Hello Thursday Morning!

I’ve always said and taught, ‘Who you are in the next five years is a direct result of the books you read and the people you associate with.’

1. Question – So what does Epictetus (epic – tee- tus) have to say about books and people?

2. Thought – The Right Use of Books: Don’t just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.

Exercise Caution When Mingling With Others: One of two things will happen when you socialize with others. You either become like your companions, or you bring them over to your ways.  Just as when a dead coal contacts a live one, either the first will extinguish the last, or the last kindle the first. Great is the danger; so be circumspect on entering into personal associations, even and especially lighthearted ones.

Most of us do not possess sufficiently developed steadfastness to steer our companions to our own purpose, so we end up being carried along by the crowd. Our own values and our ideals become fuzzy and tainted; our resolve is destabilized.

It’s hard to resist when friends and associates start speaking brashly. Caught off guard when our associates broach ignoble subjects, we are swept along by the social momentum. It is the nature of conversation that its multiple meanings, innuendoes, and personal motivations move along at such a fast clip they can instantly shift in unwholesome directions, sullying everyone involved. So until wise sentiments are fixed into you as if they were instinct and you have thus acquired some power of self-defense, choose your associations with care and monitor the thrust of conversations in which you find yourself. (The Art of Living by Epictetus)

“As a race we feel empty. This is because our spirituality has been wiped out and we don’t know how to express ourselves. As a result we’re encouraged to fill that gap with alcohol, drugs, sex, or money. People out there are screaming for the truth.” (Sinead O’Conner)